Tacoma Opera
Encyclopedia
Tacoma Opera is a professional opera
company located in Tacoma
, WA and is a member of OPERA America
. The company presents two fully staged operas and one young artists' showcase a year. In 2009-10 the company presented Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
. The 2010-11 season includes Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
and a double bill of Pagliacci
and Trouble in Tahiti
.
, successfully rebounded the company with the help of Pacific Lutheran University
's then dean Richard Moe
and the PLU fine arts staff. Wolf became the new director of the company and a production of Die Fledermaus
was successfully staged that year. Under Wolf's leadership, the company produced many operettas and grand operas. The company also produced several premieres including the West Coast premiere of Offenbach
's Christopher Columbus
and the world premiere of a brand-new opera by Seattle composer Carol Sams
' The Pied Piper of Hamelin
among others. In the late 1990s, Wolf retired from his position and Rod Gideons became the new executive director of the company and David Bartholomew the artistic director. The current general director is Kathryn Smith, who first came to the company in 2003.
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
company located in Tacoma
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, WA and is a member of OPERA America
Opera America
Opera America, officially OPERA America, is a service organization in North America promoting the creation, presentation, and enjoyment of opera...
. The company presents two fully staged operas and one young artists' showcase a year. In 2009-10 the company presented Donizetti's The Daughter of the Regiment and Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro
The Marriage of Figaro
Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K. 492, is an opera buffa composed in 1786 in four acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, La folle journée, ou le Mariage de Figaro .Although the play by...
. The 2010-11 season includes Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore
L'elisir d'amore is an opera by the Italian composer Gaetano Donizetti. It is a melodramma giocoso in two acts...
and a double bill of Pagliacci
Pagliacci
Pagliacci , sometimes incorrectly rendered with a definite article as I Pagliacci, is an opera consisting of a prologue and two acts written and composed by Ruggero Leoncavallo. It recounts the tragedy of a jealous husband in a commedia dell'arte troupe...
and Trouble in Tahiti
Trouble in Tahiti
Trouble in Tahiti is a one-act opera in seven scenes composed by Leonard Bernstein with an English libretto by the composer. The opera received its first performance on 12 June 1952 at Berstein's Festival of the Creative Arts on the campus of Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts to an...
.
History
Tacoma Opera was founded in 1968. While the company initially enjoyed several years of success, the company folded in the late 1970s. In 1981, Hans Wolf, then director of community outreach for Seattle OperaSeattle Opera
The Seattle Opera is an opera company located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1963 by Glynn Ross, who served as the company's first general director through 1983, Seattle Opera's season runs from August to late May, with five or six operas offered and with eight to ten performances each, often...
, successfully rebounded the company with the help of Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University
Pacific Lutheran University is located in Parkland, a suburb of Tacoma, Washington. In September 2009, PLU had a student population of 3,582 and approximately 280 full-time faculty...
's then dean Richard Moe
Richard Moe
Richard Moe is an American lawyer from Duluth, Minnesota. Following his graduation from Williams College and the University of Minnesota Law School, Moe went on to a distinguished career in government, law, and historic preservation...
and the PLU fine arts staff. Wolf became the new director of the company and a production of Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus
Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German libretto by Karl Haffner and Richard Genée.- Literary sources :...
was successfully staged that year. Under Wolf's leadership, the company produced many operettas and grand operas. The company also produced several premieres including the West Coast premiere of Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach
Jacques Offenbach was a Prussian-born French composer, cellist and impresario. He is remembered for his nearly 100 operettas of the 1850s–1870s and his uncompleted opera The Tales of Hoffmann. He was a powerful influence on later composers of the operetta genre, particularly Johann Strauss, Jr....
's Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus
Christopher Columbus was an explorer, colonizer, and navigator, born in the Republic of Genoa, in northwestern Italy. Under the auspices of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain, he completed four voyages across the Atlantic Ocean that led to general European awareness of the American continents in the...
and the world premiere of a brand-new opera by Seattle composer Carol Sams
Carol Sams
Carol Sams is an American composer based in the Seattle area. She earned a Master of Arts in Music from Mills College and a Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Washington. One of her teachers was Darius Milhaud. In 1976 her opera, Salome, Daughter of Herodias, was premiered at the...
' The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin , Lower Saxony, Germany, in the Middle Ages. The earliest references describe a piper, dressed in pied clothing, leading the children away from the town never...
among others. In the late 1990s, Wolf retired from his position and Rod Gideons became the new executive director of the company and David Bartholomew the artistic director. The current general director is Kathryn Smith, who first came to the company in 2003.